Koch group, unions battle over Colorado schools race

[Torie]

Douglas County in Colorado is experimenting with drastically changing the secondary public school model from soup to nuts, nixing tenure, paying teachers based on what it takes to hire good teachers with the needed skill set rather than seniority, and allowing parents to pick the school they go to, with schools competing with each other and fashioning "market niches." The voucher program aspect is tied up in the Courts. The Teachers Unions are fighting back of course and have a slate of candidates running to oust the group that brought all these changes about (with outside money pouring in on each side). It certainly will be the set of races I will be watching most closely on Tuesday night. You can read all about it here.

Given the gridlock in DC, so much more interesting stuff is happening these days at the state and local level isn't it? 

[Link]

I've said it before and I will say it again.  The kids have the same $h-tty parents so they can monkey around with teacher hiring, firing, pensions, and pay and you will still get the same supbar product out of the factory.

I went to a nice (IMHO) suburban school that sent people to Ivy League Universities.  Multiple people in my family got offered full rides at nice universities.  And yet at that same school we had drop outs, druggies, teen pregnancies, you name it.  I guess if they busted the teachers union all that would have been magically fixed.

[Indy Texas]

Torie, part of the reason tenure is sometimes used is because it is to the benefit of the school and the students to minimize turnover. Would you rather have those poor kids you claim to care so much about taught by a stream of Teach for America kids who are only going to be at the school for a year or two before they go off and work for McKinsey or go to law school? In Texas, we don't have tenure per se, but have a lesser version of it in the form of multi-year contracts. A novice teacher is hired on a year-to-year basis; then 2-year contracts; then 5-year contracts and sometimes longer depending on the district.

I'm not sure what other than seniority pay you expect to be used. Teachers can't get "promoted" like in a corporate-type organization. If you're suggesting their pay be based on the performance of the little urchins they're in charge of, I would say that's highly unfair. You're just going to have teachers only want to have the best students in their classes and it will be harder to attract teachers to bad neighborhoods.

As for school choice, community schools and community learning are beneficial to students. It is good for them to go to school in the neighborhood they live in, with children they live near, particularly at a young age. For high schools, I would prefer to see a form of open enrollment where there is no zoning for high schools in a district; rather, students can enroll in them on a first-come-first-served basis. The enrollment period would be staggered; high-performing students would be allowed to enroll first (based on grades and test scores), then everyone else.

Your example is Colorado. I'd point out that Colorado's relative affluence and homogeneity mean that the school choice debate is going to take on a very different tone than if it were happening in Texas, the South or any major Eastern city like Philadelphia or Chicago.

Do the Kochs have children in Colorado public schools? If this is really "for the children" then you'd think the parents who actually live there and whose children would ostensibly benefit from these changes would be funding candidates.

[Lief 🗽]

Let's hope these union-busting, Koch-funded anti-education types are defeated.

[opebo]

Given the gridlock in DC, so much more interesting stuff is happening these days at the state and local level isn't it?

Yes, I suppose lots of horrible things are interesting.  Interesting is more the word one might use whilst comfortably insulated from the mayhem by wealth and proximity to one's own demise.  Imagine how the youths feel: perhaps more terrified or depressed than interested?